Re: R.I.P. Philip Kives, founder of K-Tel

[www.winnipegfreepress.com]

I don't think our household ever had an actual K-Tel compilation. Even as little kids, we were purists and demanded to have the actual 45 rather than a cheap-ish compilation album. But they were pretty ubiquitous for anyone growing up in the 70s, and the commercials were always entertaining.

I actually own one K-Tel album, but it's an import:

[www.discogs.com]



Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®

What label released the compilation albums back in the 70s that were all cover versions by The Sound Effects? Not sure if that's how they spelled "Effects" or not. I had thought it was K-Tel, but apparently it wasn't. I just remember that commercials for their albums were on during Gilligan and Ultraman as often as K-Tel's were.

I was always kind of mystified when a classmate would bring a Sound Effects album to grade school. How could they not care that it wasn't actually the Partridge Family doing "I Think I Love You" on that album? It was an early indication that the damn I gave about music was going to be way out of proportion to the damns most people gave.

breno

in my mind there is both fawning concordance to your memory-flash anecdote and a brilliant exegesis on the phenomenon.

but sans a rollback on my indolence:
*did that market crash due to education of public?
*was it a social leftover from the sheet music generations?
*they were sold as tie-ins to things like dishwash soap
*one of ours had them singing both Monkees and Frank Sinatra (something stupid)
*i felt dirty

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who DIDN'T have the ktel vegomatic or the record selector? - because when you asked your family for the newest stones, bowie, or zep for qwanzakuh they became curiously unaware (or maybe it was because the indy record store was a patchouli-and-incense-clouded head shop and waterbed store that was checkpoint charlie to them) and instead decided that all the time you spent in the basement with the records could be better served by a high tech device from the future, and anyway there are more popular records (said my relatives who instead gave me Sat Night Fever, Donna Summers, Styx, Supertramp, and newer copies of Comes Alive, The Wall and Boston).

The problem with the K-records was two minutes of Ozark Daredevils, two minutes of Doobie Brothers and then two minutes of DeFranco Family or Donny Osmond, Disco Tex & Sexolette or that song "Muhammad Ali is a Black Superman"* (and Paper Lace was mandatory). Singles were as economical to the banana seat crowd. My k-tels were free and I kept them from touching the others; banished to the box with Dickie Goodman, 4 seasons, Leonard Nimoy and Disco Duck.

But the two-second clip in the commercial was the only way we knew what some artists looked like

*Yes, there was a top 40 hit with a chorus that chanted "mohammad". Where the fuck was Trump then?



Post Edited (05-02-16 00:38)

[www.youtube.com]

still can't resist

(it's up there with the crying native american and ancient chinese secret)

surely there's a Freedom Rock strain in one of these stores that are everywhere around here



Post Edited (04-30-16 10:49)

"In the Year 2525" seems like an odd fit for Freedom Rock.

I managed to find this commercial for an album by "The Original Sound Effects":

<[www.fuzzymemories.tv];

to be clear
they weren't singing something stupid by frank sinatra,
they were singing something stupid by frank sinatra

but after searching The Sound Effects -
the simulacra in my family's giant wood console* predated the venerable TSE

Seems the phenomenon peaked before them - surely it was too easy to just grab an ensconced and biding second rate wrecking crew and churn

*not a ref to family station wagon - also venerable, discounting the rat that sacrificed its life in the air conditioning duct thus making summer vacay sweatier

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"record selector with a mind of its own!"

you mean gravity and inertia?

"finger tip control"

so you're saying warranty void if I prefer to use my toes when handling my vinyl? (because it makes my gold-ends sound better. I can hear it!!)



Post Edited (05-01-16 10:59)

In honor of the late Mr Kives, I'll devote next Monday night's show to playing a number of songs by different musical artists.

It was Diamond Dogs, on that import K-tel Bowie, that was unique to that release - I remember completists sending out tendrils - but I see it was since released on Diamond Dogs 30th Anniversary.

I don't think the unique edit of Life on Mars is since elsewhere

K-Tel/Ronco albums were rife with unique edits of pop songs to better cram 10 per side. I also have a UK Ronco with tighter edits of OMD/Simple Minds/Japan cuts on it!

[www.discogs.com]



Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®

Local synth-poppers The Reels decided to release their cover of “This Guy’s In Love With You” in the early 80s and had a hit with it, prompting them to unexpectedly make a third album (Beautiful) dominated by covers of MOR classics (and an MOR version of an earlier hit: Pre-Fab Heart), and to complete the theme, it was released on K-Tel. They actually have a TP entry which is pretty harsh considering some of the songs on Quasimodo’s Dream, but that’s another story.

> It was an early indication that the damn I gave about music was going to be way out of
> proportion to the damns most people gave.

Looking back, I sometimes wish I'd gained that insight a lot earlier than I did. It would've spared me a lot of awkward moments, dangling conversations, and perhaps a few wasted dates.

I think that I knew that by the age of 7, when instead of toys, I asked for records for my birthday!



Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®

As I was walking to St. Ives, I met a man named Philip Kives.

After which I went home carrying a heavy load of vinyl, 8-tracks, cassettes and CDs.

Rest in Peace, Phil.

As I was walking to St. Ives
I met a man named Philip Kives.
He carried lots of shopping sacks
All full of records and 8-tracks.
He also had boxes of CDs --
Cassettes as well, on top of all these.
All this music from the archives --
How much did you spend on the way to St. Ives?

$200.